BERLIN, May 13 — Drinking beer could reduce the risk of cancer, strokes and heart disease, Germany’s brewers’ federation said Monday, hoping to inspire the country’s youth to head for the beer garden rather than the gym.

Beer is good for you — no, really

SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 — Two University of Cambridge computer security researchers plan to describe on Monday an ingenious and inexpensive attack that employs a $30 camera flashgun and a microscope to extract secret information contained in widely used smart cards.

The newly discovered vulnerability is reason for alarm, the researchers said, because it could make it cost-effective for a criminal to steal information from the cards.

Vulnerability Is Discovered in Security for Smart Cards

By the end of last week, investors had decided that bad news from WorldCom Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. overshadowed Cisco's cautiously optimistic view for sales growth, analysts said.

The result was a nasty reversal for the American Stock Exchange Networking Index(.NWX), which dropped back on Thursday and Friday as attention returned to the capital spending crunch that has dragged down shares of many once high-flying network gear makers, analysts said.

"We may not get back to record lows, but we still have to work our way through some quarterly reports that will be tough and where expectations will have to be scaled back," said William Becklean, a Commerce Capital Markets analyst.

"Service providers and enterprises have ended up with overcapacity and their earnings are under pressure so they're not spending unless they have to spend," Becklean said. "I don't think we'll see a pick up in capital spending until sometime next year."

Investors Skeptical of Recovery for Networkers

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It was probably inevitable. The pop music and fashion industries depend on recycling their own history, and the retro styles of the 1960's and 70's had been strip-mined to the point of exhaustion. Anyway, pop cult revivals tend to arrive punctually after roughly 20 years — just long enough for a period to acquire the charm of remoteness. In the 80's themselves, rock groups like R.E.M. and Jesus and Mary Chain harked back to the Velvet Underground and the Byrds of the 60's. So, in the 00's, the 80's have returned, right on time.

Dance clubs devoted to 80's pop culture have been springing up from Chicago to London, from Berlin to Brooklyn, all of them echoing with the thumping sound of 80's synth-pop groups like Human League and Soft Cell. But the D.J.'s are not just spinning records culled from the bargain bins. They're also playing music by a raft of contemporary 80's-influenced groups like Fischerspooner, the Faint and Miss Kittin and the Hacker.

w1ld: great article!

The 70's Are So 90's. The 80's Are the Thing Now.

Does your computer spend most of the day running screensavers or otherwise wasting its computing cycles? Why not use those spare cycles to help solve some huge problems? Try a project in one of the following categories:

Science, Life Sciences, Cryptography, Internet, Financial, Mathematics, Art, Puzzles, Miscellaneous, Distributed Human Projects, Collaborative Knowledge Bases, Charity

Which distributed project are you involved with?

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AIROBI, Kenya — As dawn breaks, Linnette Otieno leaves her small house on Nairobi's outskirts and walks five miles to market. On her head is a load of firewood she plans to sell. The load weighs about 65 pounds. She hardly sweats.

Scientists have long wondered how women like Ms. Otieno are able to carry so much so easily. Now, in a study to be published shortly, two researchers from Europe describe the trick in detail: women from certain African tribes unconsciously modify their gait to walk using less energy. The energy they save is applied to carrying the weight.

Improving the Way Humans Walk

Aphex Twin, who has been described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music," appears to have sneaked the digital image of a devilish face into at least one of his songs.

The spooky image of a creature with a diabolical grin has been accidentally discovered on Aphex Twin's Windowlicker EP, a 1999 hit.

Hey, Who's That Face in My Song?

"Enhanced risk management, by increasing our ability to better focus on probabilities, will tend to flatten cyclical lending patterns," Greenspan said in remarks to a banking conference in Chicago.

"The loss of high quality borrowers thus introduces not only systematic vulnerabilities but also portfolios that are less idiosyncratic and more sensitive to the business cycle," he said.

"Risk quantification should lead to tighter controls and assigned responsibilities. The risk effects of lending officers' decisions can be recognized in a more timely fashion, thus reducing the cyclical attitudinal swings in banking," Greenspan said.

Greenspan Speaks

Battered by the continuing downturn in the economy, CoSine Communications on Thursday announced plans to lay off 45 percent of its work force.
A CoSine representative said the network equipment maker will cut 190 jobs, reduce research and development spending, and consolidate the company's sales and support staffs so they can focus on the company's larger telecommunications service provider customers.

CoSine to cut jobs, reduce spending

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Political leaders in Washington are casting about for measures to ensure that the Enron debacle will never be repeated. Unfortunately, one of the main ideas being considered — requiring companies to treat stock options as expenses on financial statements — addresses an issue that not only had nothing to do with Enron's failure but is, in fact, not a problem at all.

Leave Options Alone